November has now rolled around. The tourists are long gone from Costa da Caparica. It’s a bright blue morning so I have a walk along the tiny narrow gauge railway which runs along the back of the wonderful beaches between Costa da Caparica and Fonte da Telha a few miles south down the coast. The […]
‘Disputed Passage’, Cinemathek, Brussels
A La Mort Subite on Rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères is a Brussels institution, a wonderful café brasserie that retains its original 1928 decor. Its glorious interior is a little faded in a warm, lived-in way. The place has a marble floor, high ceiling, long wooden tables, sturdy old radiators, and elegantly arched mirrors along the […]
‘Classe Tous Risques’, BFI Southbank, London
The walk across Waterloo Bridge offers my favourite view of London. In one direction you can see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, whilst in the other direction stands St Paul’s Cathedral and a jagged high-rise skyline. Below your feet the River Thames powers along with surprising force and speed. But on this dreich […]
‘City Lights’, Pathé Tuschinski, Amsterdam
A passing thunderstorm wakes me just before 5 a.m. Heavy rain batters against my bedroom window. There are occasional flashes of lightning that I can sense through my still-closed eyes, and the long drawn out rumble of thunder. By the time I leave the apartment a couple of hours later the storm has passed and […]
‘Backdraft’, Cinema Sâo Jorge, Lisbon
Sâo Jorge cinema, like Condes cinema just along the road, is another gigantic city centre dream shrine on Avenida da Liberdade. The avenue’s plane trees and palms are swaying and rustling in the blue afternoon gust. By the Sâo Jorge cinema entrance steps, plenty pre-Backdraft smoke is swirling up from a roast chestnut vendor. In Screen […]
‘Ao Fim da Noite’, Amoreiras and ‘Zandalee’, Cinema Nimas, Lisbon
After last Saturday’s State of Grace I went up to Bairro Alto to meet Pete and his flatmate Sarah in As Primas. I mentioned to them how Portuguese subtitles in films always seem to tone down colourful language. In a film I saw recently, one character lamented the fact that everything was ‘fucked up’, which got […]